7th grade was not that bad. There were good parts and not so good parts. I think I was pretty successful. I had some late assignments and other hiccups but I have a gold medal in the end (as far as I know) and I learned a few things along the way too. One thing I learned personally this year is that I really like track. I also found that I am a lot better a shot put than I had intended. If I could change anything, I would study more. I can’t think of anything I learned the hard way. Next year, I will try to give myself more time than I think I need for projects. For next year’s 7th graders, make sure you find a world history fair topic that you can find enough information on to write an essay. “Live long and prosper.”

I thought this was a good experience to go have something hands on to do. I did not personally learn anything except for all the culture stuff that we were taught in class. If I could change anything, I think I would change the curriculum to be focused on the economic side of the experience. We never talked about that and that was really the thing that I was looking forward to in this experience. That is why Ameritowne was better. That and I had to have one of the staff walk me through when I had to fill out certain forms for my job. My favorite part was getting to exchange currency when one of the specialists was gone. I figured out a trick that made it really fast to do so I was just zipping through “customers”. Overall, it was a good experience but it was lacking on the global economics side.

World history influences our live today in just about every way possible. This is because all of the actions and consequences of people and civilizations resulted in our technology, culture, government, laws, and so many more things that we don’t think about. My guiding question was, "How were aqueducts effectively made and used in ancient Rome?" and I learned a lot more about the construction than the use. The most interesting part was some of the facts that I learned. One of those facts was that the aqueducts were built so they dropped 2-3 feet per mile of distance traveled.

I did learn a couple of cool things from other people’s projects. I learned from Isaac that Cӕsar was pronounced Kaiser, like the German leader. I learned that Romans used siege towers; I thought that was just other civilizations. From one project I learned that the Incans created bows that could shoot am mile (I think). I learned from Alec that the Romans used war elephants to win one of the Punic Wars. I did learn a lot of other cool stuff, but these were the most interesting ones.

I did not like the book very much. I thought it was just not exciting enough for me. I liked Sam because he had unique ways of going about things like the competition to see who could get water to the garden. I didn’t like the teacher because she tried to be so controlling about everything, even outside the classroom. I think the big idea is that the author thinks people should cooperate and do something as a community with their community. I liked most of the activities that we did in classes but I liked Mr. Howard’s activity most because it was a hands-on kind of thing.

My topic, Roman aqueducts, has “created change” in the world in two main ways. The Roman aqueducts have created a design and model for today’s aqueducts and created a lot of tourism because they have lasted so long. My final project is coming along pretty well. I have been working on creating my sugar cube aqueduct and gathering all the things I need on my board. It still needs work but I think it will be pretty cool in the end. My guiding question is, “How were aqueducts effectively made and used in ancient Rome?” I have found lots of good information on how the aqueducts were built but just enough for how they were used.

I have some more random facts coming your way for all who are reading. This week, I have car facts and some origins of abreviations.

The Lamborghini Aventador uses a V12 engine.

Most American made car horns honk at the key of F.

The Ferrari Dino was named after the son of Enzo Ferrari by Enzo Ferrari and the Ferrari Enzo was named after the creator of Ferrari, Enzo Ferrari, after he died.

Mr. Lamborghini, the man who founded Lamborghini was a friend and employee of Enzo Ferrari but the two got in a fight and Mr. Lamborghini said he could make a better car than Enzo could so he went and tried. I, personally, think he did make better cars.

Gasoline is not explosive in its liquid form so the engine sprays it into the cylinder to blow up.

The abbreviation for pound, lb. comes from the Latin word Libra, a measurement of weight.

AM and PM come from Ante Meridiem and Post Meridiem, Latin for before noon and after noon.

E.G. is Latin for exempli gratia which means for example.

MO comes from modus operandi, Latin for way of operating.

I.E. comes from Id Est or “that is” in Latin.

Etc. is Et Cetera meaning in Latin “and other things”.

L.S.D. was the initials for pounds, shillings, and pence in old English currency. It is also why the symbol for pounds is an “ornate capital” L which come from the same root as pounds, Libra.

We dissected the chicken wing to learn about the muscular system. I personally thought it was gross. Mostly because of the bone. I hate touching bones or even looking at them (directly). It just bothers me. I would have much rather just taken notes. I could have learned more and had a better experience by just taking notes. I didn’t even learn anything.

I thought the movie was interesting to see from their eyes what happened. I just like most people knew that stuff happened and that it was pretty bad, but I had not ever seen a movie presentation of what happened from their perspective. In their position, I think I would have done pretty much the same thing as them. I don’t know what I would have done differently. I think I would have gone either way for the courage to go on and not fight. I wouldn’t have wanted to be at that school alone but with others I think I probably could have had that courage. I think things have changed a little bit because of the fact that we are not as segregated as we once were but there is still segregation in similar and different ways. We don't really segregate againt other races as much but we still segregate people who don't like certain things, or look bad, or go about things differently.